Genealogy Chat

Is there anyway to find the name of the grooms father on a marriage cert before ordering it ?.Thanks in advance for your help Angie.

In short - afraid not. If you have looked backwards through the census for the groom it would be possible to find him on the census with his parents which would in theory give dads full name and mums first name. If you mean that you think you have found his marriage and already know his fathers name so want to check its the right certificate before buying it, then you can specify that you only want the certificate with that reference point. GRO will refund you £4 of the £7 cost if you specify a dad called Samuel and the father on the cert is Richard. HOWEVER, this isnt always a good idea as it may be your grooms father used a different name in every day use (eg on census) compared with his 'formal' name. For example, from his baptism to his death, my GGFx3 used the name Sander- it wasnt til I bought his daughters marriage cert I found him entered as Alexander. Had I specified I only wanted the cert if the father was Sander then I would never had received it and got all the information on there. In another example, I KNEW the grooms father was a Andrew - however when I received the marriage cert it gave the name William as father. It was an extremely unsusual surname so I knew I had the right people. However, the real father had died when this boy was only 4 years old and he had grown up with a stepfather called William who he was obviously very fond of because although he stuck to his real fathers surname, he even named his first son after this stepfather, using both first and surname as a middle name for the child. Again, had I specified a father called Andrew, I would not have received the cert because the boy had confused his real father with his step father.

If you have a fair idea of the parish (not just the registration district), then you should be able to get all the marriage details for free, from the relevant parish register. Of course, if it was a civil marriage then you won't find it in the parish registers - in that case, the only option is to buy the cert. Richard

Thanyou heather and and richard for your help.angie.